]]>Ticketmaster is caught in another class-action lawsuit in federal court which claims the ticketing giant unlawfully contracts with scalpers and profits from the dealing, violating California law.

Mahmoud Ameri and Erin Ouborg, represented by Brent A. Robinson of Atman-Smith & Marcy, brought on the lawsuit after they purchased tickets through Ticketmaster and were financially hurt, Top Class Actions reports. According to the suit, the customers said that Ticketmaster sells tickets in bulk on its website to professional resellers and then the tickets are sold at an inflated price. The duo claim that Ticketmaster receives double commission and believe the practice is “unlawful.”

The suit also claims that Ticketmaster denounces scalping, stating that bulk purchases by resellers are prohibited, but the company is contradicting themselves. Ameri and Ouborg note that while the company does not enter into agreements with resellers, they provide computer programs to scalpers and encourage resellers to use fake identities to purchase tickets. They pointed to TradeDesk, calling the program a “computerized system secretly created by Ticketmaster for professional scalpers.”

TradeDesk has faced harsh criticism over the past year after a Ticketmaster salesperson told an undercover reporter for CBC that the company turns a blind eye to brokers who buy tickets on their site and operates in resale.

The duo say that Ticketmaster’s conduct, including hiking prices, violates California Business and Professions Code, along with the Cartwright Act. They believe that Ticketmaster is “entering into and engaging in unlawful contract, combination, and conspiracy.”

This is just one of the lawsuits against Ticketmaster; one stems from a Regina, Saskatchawan-based lawyer, and another is based in the United States, where the Hagens Berman firm is seeking consumers who feel they have been affected by Ticketmaster’s policies to form the basis of a lawsuit here. Additionally, a California government official has proposed legislation that would ban TradeDesk from selling tickets on the secondary market, claiming that all “California [should] have equitable access to tickets.”

]]>Ticketmaster, Live Nation Battle Against Consumer Class Action Lawsuithttps://www.ticketnews.com/2018/12/ticketmaster-live-nation-consumer-class-action-lawsuit/
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 16:04:36 +0000https://www.ticketnews.com/?p=37746A class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster was revealed earlier this week after a customer accused the ticketing giant of intentional fraud and over-charging consumers. The lawsuit was filed by customer Allen Lee in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, brought by barristers Steve Berman and Elaine...

]]>A class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster was revealed earlier this week after a customer accused the ticketing giant of intentional fraud and over-charging consumers.

The lawsuit was filed by customer Allen Lee in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, brought by barristers Steve Berman and Elaine Byszewski. It claims that Ticketmaster has violated the Cartwright Act, California Penal Code, and a handful of fraudulent business practices.

“Have you ever wondered why Ticketmaster has been unable to rid itself of the scalpers who purchase mass quantities of concert or sports tickets from its website and then resell them for much more minutes later?” the lawsuit reads. “The answer: Ticketmaster hasn’t wanted to rid itself of scalpers because, as it turns out, they have been working with them.

“Indeed, on its own website, Ticketmaster refers to the activity of professional scalpers as ‘unfair competition.’ But now it has been caught secretly permitting, facilitating and actively encouraging the sale of tickets by scalpers on the secondary market using its TradeDesk platform — all for a second cut on those sales.”

Ticketmaster is fighting back against the suit by claiming customers like Lee have no right to sue the company since they have waived their rights – found in the fine print of their user agreements. They are counter-filing against Lee, noting that “the applicable Terms contained a provision by which Plaintiffs expressly agreed to submit their claims to binding arbitration, and waive any right to a jury trial or to participate in a class action.”

While most people blindly read past the fine print in a user agreement, opting to quickly e-sign, it is now up to the courts to decide if Ticketmaster’s fine print consists of a sneaky trap toward consumers, or it is actually legitimate.

Lee’s allegations follow the class action lawsuit filed against Ticketmaster after an undercover investigation by CBC News and the Toronto Star revealed that Ticketmaster works with scalpers, despite the fact they claim they don’t. Both publications recorded an explanation from a representative of Ticketmaster subsidiary TradeDesk, who said the company allows scalpers to bulk-buy tickets and sell them at higher prices.

“Companies should treat consumers fairly,” Lee’s lawsuit reads. “But a company fails at this when it accepts kickbacks for secretly facilitating a shortage of its product and then a sale by a third party at a higher price. This isn’t right. But Ticketmaster was just exposed for engaging in just such a scheme.”

]]>Ticketmaster President Responds to CBC/Toronto Star Resale Reportshttps://www.ticketnews.com/2018/09/ticketmaster-president-responds-to-cbc-toronto-star-resale-reports/
Thu, 27 Sep 2018 14:08:41 +0000https://www.ticketnews.com/?p=36408On Tuesday, in the wake of negative reports related to its practices in ticket resale and following a letter demanding answers from a pair of U.S. Senators, Ticketmaster’s Jared Smith wrote a blog post defending his company’s policies, posted to a company blog site. In it, the Ticketmaster president fights...

In it, the Ticketmaster president fights back against the implication that the company secretly aids “scalpers” with its TradeDesk platform and looks the other way when ticket brokers break the company’s own rules in the primary side of its business.

“Let me be absolutely clear and definitive that Ticketmaster does not have, and has never had, any program or product that helps professional resellers gain an advantage to buy tickets ahead of fans. Period,” he wrote this week, in bold text. “We would never make anything like that, which would go against the very core of who we are and what we do. And that’s simply not what TradeDesk is.”

Smith goes on to explain what the TradeDesk platform is, comparing it to similar systems set up by other resale companies like StubHub and VividSeats. Rather than a program designed with ticket brokers in mind to help them move massive numbers of tickets, he says the program is “overwhelmingly used to manage season tickets for sporting events.”

Primarily, the article serves as an attempt to spin the litany of bad press coming out of the recent reports into a reminder of the programs that the company says it runs with real fans in mind, such as Verified Fan and anti-bot sweeps.

Setting the Record Straight on TradeDesk and Ticketmaster Resale

Recent media reports have claimed that Ticketmaster has a secret program to collude with scalpers at the expense of fans. The claim is based largely on a limited understanding of a Ticketmaster product called TradeDesk. Most people reading these reports likely thought it meant that Ticketmaster was selling software to help scalpers buy tickets ahead of fans, as Rolling Stone and others reported. I want to spend a few moments setting the record straight.

Let me be absolutely clear and definitive that Ticketmaster does not have, and has never had, any program or product that helps professional resellers gain an advantage to buy tickets ahead of fans. Period. We would never make anything like that, which would go against the very core of who we are and what we do. And that’s simply not what TradeDesk is.

TradeDesk is Ticketmaster’s version of an inventory management tool for professional ticket resellers (brokers). It is neither secret nor unique to Ticketmaster. Like StubHub’s product called Ticket Utils or Vivid Seat’s Skybox, TradeDesk is used by brokers to manage tickets they already have. All of these tools organize a broker’s ticket inventory so the tickets can be priced and listed for sale on various ticket marketplaces, not just on Ticketmaster as was suggested. These tickets could have come from Ticketmaster, from other ticketing systems or could have been purchased directly from a team, a venue or another reseller. TradeDesk is overwhelmingly used to manage season tickets for sporting events.

TradeDesk is not a scheme to help Ticketmaster sell tickets twice. In fact, less than 4% of the concert tickets we sell each year are listed and sold again on Ticketmaster. What does make TradeDesk unique, however, is that it offers an integration with Ticketmaster for validating tickets that are uploaded to it. As a result, our integrated marketplace is fundamentally different than all the others – safer, more transparent, and where each resale ticket is clearly identified and required to be 100% verified before ever being listed for sale.

We are aware that many people don’t believe we should be working with ticket brokers at all. But as long as there is a massive disconnect between supply and demand in live event tickets, there is going to be a secondary market. Choosing not to participate would simply push resale back to those who care less than we do about artists and fans. The reality is, engaging brokers with a safer version of tools they could get from many other ticketing companies reduces fraud across the overall ticket market.

We also understand that we have a responsibility to be extra vigilant in our resale offerings. We take these responsibilities seriously and as we previously stated, we are now in the process of reviewing all of our Ticketmaster accounts and expanding our review process to ensure all customers are in compliance with our Terms of Service.

The frustrating thing about this article is that Ticketmaster is by far the leader in fighting for fans and against scalpers using tools that let them cheat. We have invested more than anyone else in an arms race against the use of bots. We have also worked with multiple regulatory and law enforcement bodies to protect real fans, pursued lawsuits against abusers of our systems and fought hard to help enact the Federal law banning the use of bots.

With all honesty, we’d much rather be having a conversation about the amazing products we’ve built, which we believe will finally get at the heart of what’s needed to give the advantage to real fans. Over the past 18 months, we’ve launched innovative products that do exactly that, including Ticketmaster Presence digital ticketing and Ticketmaster Verified Fan, which has now been deployed on over 100 tours and has in many cases cut resale by as much as 90%.

Nevertheless, we agree these are important issues that can be complex and confusing. We are committed to helping create more understanding and to building products to do what we can to improve the ticket buying process for all fans.